It’s Super Tuesday. Do you know what role religion will play?

Virginia voters line up early to cast their ballots in Super Tuesday elections at the Wilson School in Arlington, Virginia on March 1, 2016. Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Gary Cameron
*Editors: This photo may only be republished with RNS-SUPER-TUESDAY, originally transmitted on March 1, 2016.

(RNS) What’s so super about Super Tuesday?

Perhaps it’s the majority of evangelical Protestants among the Republicans voting in several of the 12 states holding their primaries and caucuses Tuesday (March 1). That includes Oklahoma (56 percent), Georgia (57 percent), Alabama (63 percent), Arkansas (61 percent) and Tennessee (a whopping 67 percent), according to the Pew Research Center.

Nearly half of all Republicans in Super Tuesday states identify as evangelicals, it said.

Meantime, people with no religious affiliation are the largest group (25 percent) voting Democrat in the 11 states voting Tuesday. That includes 50 percent of Vermonters and the largest group of voters in Colorado and Massachusetts, according to Pew.

“One of the big themes in the research is that people are looking for a type of protection,” said David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group. “They’re trying to find some kind of safety and security in a world that feels like it’s slipping away.”

Left to right, Sen. Marco Rubio, Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz speak at the Republican presidential debate sponsored by CNN in Houston on Feb. 25, 2016. Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Mike Stone*Editors: This photo may only be republished with RNS-SUPER-TUESDAY, originally transmitted on March 1, 2016.

But that’s a challenge for today’s Republican Party, divided as it is among theological conservatives, fiscal conservatives and social conservatives, Kinnaman said. Another challenge: Democrats have done a better job reaching the growing number of religiously unaffiliated Americans than Republicans have done maintaining their religious base, he said.

Kinnaman draws a line between those who describe themselves as evangelical in polls and those who meet theological criteria defined by Barna, affirming “a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today.”

Republican candidate Donald Trump has polled well among evangelicals and “seems poised to win many if not all of the states,” he said.

But, he said, “Highly religiously oriented voters are looking for (Sen. Ted) Cruz to come alongside them and bolster their sense of worldview.”

It also will be significant to see whether Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio –- who, Kinnaman said, are “neck and neck” behind Trump –- can separate themselves from each other.

“It’s so close for second, it’s really making it a three-way race,” Kinnaman said.

Yes, I do know what role religion will play. The idolatry of white evangelicals will help Trump sweep Super Tuesday.

Fran

I’m not voting for any of them because my allegiance, faith and trust is in God and his kingdom or heavenly government (Daniel 2:44) as the only hope of government that will rule with love, justice and righteousness for the entire human family on earth (Isaiah 11:1-10).

George Nixon Shuler

Every vote for Trump, Cruz, Rubio, Kasich, Carson, Jeb!, etc. is informed by a religious extremism and desire to smite those they hate. The exceptions are of course those who cynically manipulate others into doing so.